You can’t guarantee results, but you can guarantee effort. If you work hard and put your best foot forward, at least you can rest well knowing that you did your best. It may not be enough to get you where you want to go, but it’s a good start. And for the New York Liberty, effort was the name of the game this evening.
On Monday, the Liberty had their worst performance in years. They got down by as much as 30 points to the Dallas Wings and did not look like a playoff team, let alone a WNBA championship contender. In pregame tonight, Sandy Brondello acknowledged the team was a bit “complacent” against Dallas even though the coaching staff explained how good the Wings are. Against the Minnesota Lynx, the team was on full alert and eager to put Monday’s loss behind them.
Early on, Natasha Cloud set the tone. Tash was questionable for this game as she’s dealing with an illness, but that didn’t stop her from placing her imprint on the game early
As the game settled in, two themes emerged for the Liberty. One was the amount of missed layups they had. New York was able to get into the painted area for much of the night, but couldn’t capitalize like they normally do. The Libs lead the WNBA in shooting inside the restricted area at 69.2 percent, but only went 22/41 inside the paint tonight. A lot of that was due to the interior presence of Alanna Smith and Napheesa Collier, but
The other issue was rebounding. It’s been a bugaboo for New York this year, and the Lynx were able to take full advantage by collecting 11 offensive rebounds and scoring 20 second chance points.
“When you have 20 points off offensive rebounds,” Brondello said in postgame, “it’s a long night.”
Despite that, the Liberty hung around throughout the night. They were able to hang in thanks to the magnificent efforts of Sabrina Ionescu. Sab was able to consistently find her way into the painted area early and scored a game high 31 points on .550/.375/.750 shooting splits. She was cold from deep early, but she was able to dial it up from distance as the Liberty went on a nerve-wracking run in the fourth quarter
New York got a 15 point Lynx lead all the way down to four in the final minute, but the presumptive MVP favorite shut the door on another magical Liberty comeback.
Napheesa Collier has been sensational in just about every way possible this season. Whether its co-founding a successful league in Unrivaled, being one of the leaders of the Players Association, etc., she’s been the center of so much success in the sports landscape in 2025. And with her team fighting to hold off a Liberty upset, she got the ball in her hands and shut the door
Final score: Minnesota Lynx 100, New York Liberty 93
This is the Liberty’s first three game losing streak since July 2022. Even with the L, the team got back to playing the right way and can build on this going forward.
“That’s the standard,” Ionescu said in postgame. “That’s the standard we have to come out with every night. But with a million reasons why we could have come in here and gone through the motions and made excuses for ourselves, we didn’t. And I’m proud of each and every player that was out there tonight playing as hard as they could, doing whatever they could to get back to playing Liberty basketball.”
Help on the way?
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We talked about the recent acquisition of Emma Meesseman and what she’ll bring to the Liberty. We thought it would take some time before she suited up, but it turns out her debut might be a lot sooner than we think.
On Wednesday, Rachel Galligan of Winsidr reported that Meesseman arrived in New York City to undergo physical examinations in advance of her debut with the team
Per Madeline Kenney of the New York Post, Meesseman could join the team as soon as this weekend and potentially make her WNBA return. She gives the team plenty of scoring, distribution in the high post, rim protection, and perhaps most importantly, another player who can play big minutes while the team tries to get back to full strength. We’re in the dog days of the season, and the team is going to need all the help it can get.
Next up
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The Liberty come back to the East Coast for a weekend trip to Uncasville. They begin the first of two against the Connecticut Sun on Friday night. Tip off after 7:30 p.m. ET.